The teaching of ionic bond with guided discovery method

摘要

Literature review includes a number of papers on how secondary and higher education students comprehend scientific matters. These papers reported many misconceptions about the structure of matter and the chemical bonding. In order to confirm these findings and to investigate further misconceptions about chemical bonding, we proceed to a research in which 142 Greek graduated students of secondary school were asked to complete a diagnostic test. The results showed that students have difficulty in connecting the microcosm with the macrocosm as well as in realizing the relation between the properties of a chemical compound or a material and the kinds of chemical bonding. Also, these results demonstrated the necessity of the application of a more appropriate teaching method that it is based in the constructivism and the guided discovery learning that uses student-centered activities. According to Kelli M. Slunt “these activities involve the student in the learning process rather than allow the student to passively gather information from a delivered lecture in the more traditional .stage on the stage. method of instruction”. Besides, Ausubel based on the golden rule of educational practice, which states that teaching should be done according to what students already know. Also, the constructivist theory of learning suggests that knowledge is constructed through a process of interaction between an outside stimulus and conceptions that already exist in the learner.s head. Guided discovery method is far removed from the traditional ways of teaching, where the teacher.s opinion dominates and the students are only compelled to memorize and reproduce knowledge. According to Bruner who established this method, the teacher relies on a suitable analytical program and plans the course in the beginning of the year. During this course he presents an instructive experience or another subject that offers an opportunity for research and discussion. Students are prompted to resolve the problem, or else to discover the answer. For the discovery of the solution of the problem, students proceed to investigate of alternative choices using subterfuges, strategies και methods that they had already practiced (constructivism). They also use apperceptive thought and analytical thought, as mental means. The students explore and the teacher becomes the guide in this research. Also, recent developments in cognitive learning theory and classroom research results suggest that students generally experience improved learning when they are actively engaged in the classroom and when they construct their own knowledge following a learning cycle paradigm. Following the steps of guided discovery method, we suggested a lesson plan for the teaching of ionic bond. The aim of this study was to identify whether guided discovery method prevail against the traditional teaching method. The lesson plan is applied to 80 sixteen-years old students of secondary school (experimental group). The ionic bond was also taught to another 100 students of the same age using the traditional method (control group). A questionnaire was used as the instrument of this research. The statistical analysis of the pretest and posttest showed a small supremacy of the guided discovery against the traditional method.